


Plance: A Port In The Storm Of War (Drabble)

by StargazerNdreamer20



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff and Angst, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Soft Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25971790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StargazerNdreamer20/pseuds/StargazerNdreamer20
Summary: Pidge struggles to process the events of Reunion (s4ep2) finding the fear and journey to save her family overwhelming her unexpectedly, and Lance attempts to help her out.
Relationships: Lance/Pidge (Voltron), plance - Relationship
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	Plance: A Port In The Storm Of War (Drabble)

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been rewatching Voltron and it struck me that a scene we really needed to see was a moment of Pidge processing what she's seen, because heck I cry my eyes out and reevaluate my own life every time I rewatch that episode, and she's like 15/16 and way more sheltered before the war, there's no way she just got on with things normally after that. Thank you to Lightning Strikes Again and Asennna on Tumblr for being great beta readers and getting me to draw out and make the most of the dialogue between Lance and Pidge!

“Hey Pidge, Shiro wants to-” Lance broke off as Pidge’s door slid open to reveal her curled up on the floor, “-PIDGE ARE YOU OKAY?” he panicked, rushing over to her lying form covered in blankets. He pulled off the top blanket to see her tear-stained face, bloodshot eyes glaring up at him.

“Lance! Leave me alone,” she yelled, punching him and covering her face with a pillow.

“Oww! That really hurt! Excuse me for worrying about you.”

“Just go away, I don’t want to talk to you, or anybody, tell Shiro I’ll be down later.” Pidge mumbled, her voice muffled by the pillow.

Lance knelt down, crossing his legs as he sat beside the grumpy lump of blankets. “No, I’m not leaving you. Are you hurt? Did you get injured when you went to look for Matt?” he asked gently, his fist clenching at the thought of someone hurting her.

“I’m not injured.”

“Then what’s up, no secrets remember? I won’t tell anyone else,” he promised, “but I want to help if I can. I’m here to listen.”

Pidge opened her mouth to tell him to back off, but then hesitated. Something in his friendly voice softened her, relaxing the tight, sad ache that she felt in her chest. She slowly sat up, pushing the blankets off and wiping her nose with her jumper sleeve. Her hair was messy and tangled from running her hand through it, her glasses were smudged with tears and snot and had slipped down on one side, adding to her messy look. Lance glanced at her, taking in her pale skin and general state of disarray and shuffled a little closer, his eyes looking down again to prevent making her feel uncomfortable.

“I just…” Pidge stopped, unsure of how to express herself. She took a deep breath and tried again. “I just feel so...sad even though I know Matt’s okay. Because there was a moment when I thought he wasn’t, and it was the worst moment of my life. I saw, I saw his grave Lance,” her voice faltered and she leant forward, her face in her hands, trying to cover the tears in her eyes that appeared when she thought of that cold, grey headstone, the thousands of headstones across that field.

“But..” Lance ventured, “he’s fine, you saved him. It wasn’t really his grave, it was a way for you to find him. And it worked, isn’t that good? Nobody could figure it out the way you, our gremlin hacker Pidge could!” He elbowed her playfully, but she didn’t react the way he expected her to, shoving him back or scoffing at him, she just pulled her legs close to her chest and turned her back to him.

“Forget it.”

“No, c’mon, I’m listening. I just...don’t get it, Matt’s ok, you don’t need to worry.”

“I know he’s ok, but it wasn’t just him there. It wasn’t just his grave, it was thousands, just endless rows of graves,” she whispered, still attempting to hold back tears.”So many people died...it feels scary. And I feel bad, I got Matt back, but I feel bad every time I close my eyes and I remember-” her voice caught, and for a while she was silent, gulping back the sobs she felt rise whenever she thought of the cemetery.

“I know how you feel,” Lance admitted, uncrossing his legs and looking down at his hands, calloused and ever so slightly bruised from the battles he’d fought. “I see the planets that we’re trying to free, and I see how many people are suffering or hurt, how many more there are to help, it’s scary. It feels enormous, even though we’re the heroes, we’re still just 5 normal people.”

“It’s not just that. We couldn’t..we weren’t there. We should have been.”

“Is that it? You feel...guilty we weren’t there to save them?” Lance asked gently, placing his hand on Pidge’s shoulder. She fell silent again, unsure of how to explain the sick feeling, was that it? Was it guilt? It felt like it, but more heated. Hot coals sitting in her stomach, weighing her down and burning her up.

Lance waited patiently for her to reply, sensing her confusion, and leant back slightly to rest on the side of the bed behind him, his left hand still on her shoulder. It hadn’t occurred to him before that, just maybe, he wasn’t alone in feeling overwhelmed by this crazy war they had ended up fighting in. And for it to be Pidge, of all people, who was affected? He couldn’t imagine it, she had always seemed so strong and fierce, like nothing could shake her, even at the Garrison. _I guess everyone gets hit hard, they just don’t show it as much._

“When I was searching for Matt, I met the woman who rescued him. Te’Osh,” Pidge said, interrupting his thoughts. She shuffled around so that her back was also resting on the side of the bed, and slowly uncurled her body so that she was no longer huddled hugging her legs to her chest, instead stretching them out on the blanket-covered floor. “She was leaving a rebel base piloting a medical supply ship, they were being attacked and the ship was hit. I tried to help but she died, right in front of me, the last thing she did was help me find Matt. Maybe if I had been faster..if I hadn’t left Green, or if I shot down the fighters before landing...” She stopped, tears now freely running down her face as she sobbed. “E-every time I’m with Matt, or y-you and Hunk, and we’re all hap-py, I feel sick remembering her d-dying. Remembering th-the graves.”

“Pidge, you can’t blame yourself like this,” Lance said softly, putting his arm around her protectively as she swiped at her face with her sleeve, trying to mop up the tears. “You did the best you could have, and sometimes we can’t save everybody. We just have to get up and do our best, we just have to try.” He turned and pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back comfortingly as she cried, shushing her the same way he would with his nieces and nephews. “It’s so hard, but you’ve been so strong and I really admire that, your family are so lucky to have you fighting for them,” he said, his own eyes becoming glassy as he thought of his family back home in Cuba. “You don’t need to feel bad for being happy, you don’t need to feel bad for not saving everyone, because every smile, every single person who survives is a win, Matt is a win. Your happiness is a win. Don’t ever think differently, and don’t ever let anyone tell you anything differently,” he finished, his heart aching for her, wishing there was some way he could take her pain away so she’d always be happy. Lance hugged her close, resting his chin on her messy hair as she sobbed into his jacket, letting him hug her. Letting the wave of calm and comfort in his voice envelope her. Slowly, as Pidge calmed down, she reached up to hug him back tightly, this moment a peaceful port in the storm of war.

“Thanks Lance,” she whispered, her voice muffled by his hoodie and shirt, both of which were now soaked through with her tears. “Since when were you so good at comforting people?”

“Hah, I’ve always been good at it. Plenty of practice with my sisters, and my nieces and nephews.”

“...you miss them don’t you?”

Lance’s chest tightened, thinking of his warm family home and his noisy, chaotic family. His sisters pampering with him, teaching him how to use face masks and take care of his skin. His mum cooking in the kitchen and the kids running around, causing trouble. His brothers, pushing him around and roughhousing with him, playing pranks on one another. His dad, teaching him how to drive and help around the farm. His eyes filled with tears and as they rolled down his face, dropping onto Pidge’s hair, he wished badly he could go home, and be with them now. “More than I can say,” he replied, with a catch in his voice.

Pidge pulled away and looked up at him, seeing the love and longing he held for his family, and a soft kindness directed at her, deep in his ocean-blue eyes. _Like the sea back home_ , she realised, remembering the gentle blue waves that would lap at her bare feet as she traipsed along the shore at sunset, washing her worries away for a moment. _Wish I could go back there...back home to Mom and the beach_ she thought longingly. She reached up and, gently wiping away some tears from his face, said softly, “Me too.”

“I’m scared...scared I won’t ever see them again.”

"Don’t worry, you will.”

“How do you know,” Lance whispered, “What if we never-”

“You will. And they’ll be so proud of you when you do,” she said firmly, her eyes lighting up again with determination as she clasped his face.

He gave a little smile, consoled by her certainty, “I hope so, I really do.”

Pidge smiled back and, though she still looked subdued, Lance recognised the determination set in her face. Relief flooded through his chest at the return of the strong, steady girl he knew, the familiar stubborn glint back in her caramel eyes glowing brightly up at him. _Like the stars back home, twinkling at dusk as the sun goes down on the beach_ , he mused as he gazed at her, remembering the evenings he’d sit back on the beach and watch as the stars twinkled through the deep blue-green sky at sunset, dreaming of flying among them. _Never thought I’d end up here with my best friend though, at least I’m not alone_ he thought fondly, placing his hand over hers that still cupped his cheek.

“Thanks Pidge.”

Her face heated up at his touch, suddenly self conscious of how close they were and how long she’d been staring into his rather pretty blue eyes, and now he was staring back at her! “N-no problem,” she stuttered out, abruptly dropping her hands from his face and turning away, frantically putting her blankets back on her bed to hide her no-longer pale skin. The strange spell of calm broke as Lance realised how long he’d been staring at her too and cleared his throat, turning away and picking up the pillows on the floor to hide his flustered face. He handed them to her awkwardly as she busied herself tidying her bed.

“Geez Pidge, don’t you ever clean up? Or do you need Hunk’s Lion to clear the mess away?” he joked, attempting to lighten the mood, looking around the room at the stacks of books and bits and pieces of electronics and gizmos all over the floor, piled up in corners of the room.

She shrugged, her back still turned to him. “I like it, it’s chaos but it’s mine, organized.” She slipped off her glasses to clean with her jumper sleeve and wiped her eyes before she turned back round to face him.

“You can’t fit people in here.”

“Well it’s not like I’m one to have guests.”

“Ok well,” Lance stood up to leave, “I should go, get back to Shiro, he’s probably wondering where I am. Uhm,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck and awkwardly looking down, “I hope...you’re feeling better. And that I helped a little, I’m not sure-”

“You did,” Pidge replied quickly, looking down at the floor as well to avoid his eyes as his head shot up in surprise. “It felt...nice. To have someone listen. Thanks.”

“You know...if you ever feel bad you can come and talk to me, or you know, the others,” he added hastily. “Hunk and Shiro, Allura, Coran, probably not Keith cos he’s such a hot head and not good at the whole “comforting” thing but he tries. Anyway what I’m trying to say is,” he backtracked, “we’re a family, we look out for each other, and we’re all here if you need it.”

Pidge nodded slowly, giving him a small smile, to which he returned as he left the room. She stood there for a moment, and then stepped out of her room to call to him as he walked down the hallway, “Hey Lance!”

“Yeah?” He turned back around curiously, seeing her peeking out from her room entrance.

“Can we...hang out a bit more, play video games or something?”

“Heh, I guess Shiro can wait a bit longer,” he winked at her, “Killbot Phantasm I?” he asked as he turned to walk forward again, Pidge running and catching up with him despite his long stride.

“Yep. But I'm the party leader, you got us killed last time.”

“Hey in my defence Keith decided to call us right at the worst moment! I bet it was on purpose too.”

“Yes because he planned a Galra attack just to sabotage your chance at slaying the Demon Lord, totally likely(!)”


End file.
